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with the husks, and one grain of oats ; the seventh, obtained in mild weather, was filled with the 

 stones of haws of the white thorn. These birds have often been observed by a person of my 

 acquaintance regaling on the haws or fruit of that plant during winter." The Fieldfare is stated 

 by several authors to frequent turnip-fields in winter and cause considerable damage by pecking 

 holes in the vegetables. Thus Mr. Thompson writes in the ' Birds of Ireland ' (i. p. 133) : — " On 

 the 27th and 28th of January, 1848, when hard frost had for some time prevailed, and the ground 

 was sparingly covered with snow, an accurate observer for a long time watched a large flock of 

 from 150 to 200 of these birds, in a field of Swedish turnips at Island hill, near Strangford 

 Lough. Lying behind the fence, hidden by a furze or whin bush, he was within four yards of 

 the nearest, and saw that the birds generally over the field were engaged pecking eagerly at the 

 roots of the turnip. They were very pugnacious, attacking each other like game-cocks, a couple 

 thus engaged sometimes springing even two feet into the air ; never less than about a dozen pair 

 were thus off the ground at the same time. This singular appearance was the means of attracting 

 from a distance the attention of my informant to the spot. When a couple were fighting, a third 

 often came up and attacked one of them, which was no sooner done than the previous combatant, 

 so relieved, betook itself again to turnip feeding. They never fought long, ' only two or three 

 blows at a time,' but kept up a continual feast and continual battle. On afterwards examining 

 the turnips in the field, he saw (to his surprise, considering their being hard frozen and the weak 

 bills of the birds) that they had to a great extent been eaten by the Fieldfares. As water would 

 lodge where the roots had been pecked, they would, he conceived, be rotted in consequence, to 

 the serious damage of the crop. Five of these birds having been shot and brought to Belfast, I 

 had an opportunity of examining their stomachs, which, even before being opened, all smelled 

 strongly of turnips, and on being cut into were found to be filled exclusively with that vegetable. 

 The entire flesh also when dressed partook strongly of the flavour of the turnip." Concerning 

 this propensity of the Fieldfare Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., writes to us : — " Mr. Stevenson (B. of 

 Norfolk, i. p. 77) says, ' Mr. St. John (in his ' Natural History and Sport in Moray ') speaks of the 

 Fieldfares in severe weather doing much damage by feeding on the Swedish turnips, scooping 

 pieces out with their beaks, and thus letting the frost into the roots — a charge which I never 

 remember to have heard made against them in this county.' During the late hard weather I 

 remarked some holes about the size of sixpences, which I might have attributed to them if they 

 had not been so remarkably scarce this season in the parish ; the keeper here has observed it, 

 as has Mr. Cordeaux in Lincolnshire (Zool. p. 2079)." 



Varieties of the Fieldfare not unfrequently occur. We have already mentioned that Professor 

 von Nordmann has sometimes noticed individuals of a larger size near Odessa ; and Macgillivray 

 remarks : — " Slight differences as to size and colouring are observed, and albino individuals have 

 been met with, as in the other species. In the collection of Mr. Stevenson, Edinburgh, is a 

 cream-coloured individual, with pale reddish markings on the lower parts." Dresser's collection 

 has a specimen, sent to him by Dr. Kutter, from Silesia, which has an admixture of white in its 

 plumage ; and Mr. Collett informs us that in the University Museum at Christiania are numerous 

 varieties, chiefly albinos in different states of albinism, and one showing the commencement of 

 melanism. 



In Dresser's collection is a series of the eggs of this bird, taken chiefly by himself in Finland 



4e 



